


hush little baby, don't you cry

by possiblywonderful



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Kid Fic, M/M, Teething
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-23
Updated: 2013-04-23
Packaged: 2017-12-09 06:22:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/771013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/possiblywonderful/pseuds/possiblywonderful
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you ask Stiles, the one who decided that teething should be a thing should definitly go to hell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hush little baby, don't you cry

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that this work is a) not beta'ed and b) posted in the middle of the night so please excuse me if there are mistakes, typos or whatever other kind of wild things I overlooked :)  
> Edit: I read through it again and oh boy, I really am sorry for the chaos I created in some parts. But those parts are cleared now.

Stiles is not an anxious father. On the contrary, he’s a rather relaxed dad that enjoys nearly everything his son Alex does (except for the diaper changing. That’s indeed as awful as most people say).

But sometimes he just loses it. Not as in flailing all over the place losing it but as in a silent but major freak-out over things he’s just not as well-practiced at. It’s not often but it’s definitely not unheard of either.

Today is one of those glorious silent-freak-out days and this one may not be as discreet as the other ones he had so far. And yes, of _course_ it has to be today because today is the first day Derek’s not here since their son has been born. Talking about great timing here.

Derek’s the one who’s keeping up a very composed front when Alex is crying or in general not well off due to whatever kind of reason. It doesn’t happen too often since Alex is a little ball of actual sunshine and Stiles thanks the heavens above for it every single day because in all honesty, he wouldn’t have known what to do if their son would’ve been one of those “difficult” kids. But Derek knew his way around small children and babies because of his little sister and all the cousins he’s had in his family.

Alex is with them for over five months now and it’s been the most exciting, awesome and joyful time in Stiles’ life so far but right now, all he wants to do is break down, roll up in a ball and cry as heartbreakingly as Alex does at the moment.

Alex is running a low fever and is more than just a little restless and whiny, crying since he woke up three hours ago. Stiles tried everything to calm their son. And by everything he means everything he knows and has ever tried or heard of or can imagine. So basically, everything, including singing for Alex, trying to feed him, walking around through the entire house with him, telling him funny stories about clumsy uncle Scott, lying down with him and all kinds of other things.

He even called Dr. Morris but she said Alex is probably teething and that, as long as the fever doesn’t get much higher, everything is normal and that it’s enough if they come by in the morning so she could check on him. Stiles nearly screamed at that out of sheer frustration because a) there’s nothing he could do to calm Alex and Dr. Morris just said _keep trying, it takes time_ which haha, very funny and b) he was at his wit’s end about what else he could do. He is so far out of his comfort zone here because this behavior is absolutely untypical for their son and up until now, Stiles practically never had to deal with three hours of constant crying.

“What are we gonna do, big boy…. Huh”, Stiles asked while rocking Alex back and forth. All his son had to contribute to this was an especially loud cry. It was sheer torture for Stiles to see their son in pain and not knowing what helps to ease it or if there was anything at all that helped.

Well, there was but Stiles was not going to call Derek. He was at a very important council where leaders of allied packs met to discuss strategies and to develop basic battle plans for the case of an emergency. And It was four in the morning now, who knows what they’re up to at the moment. Whatever it was, it was probably important and Stiles wasn’t going to disturb even though Derek told him to call, no matter what time, if anything was up.

_You're more important than any of this, don't even think about hesitating to call me if you need to. Or just feel like it._

So Stiles kept walking up and down their living room for another twenty minutes at least, talking to Alex animatedly because that usually helped in a heartbeat. Usually. Stiles was about five seconds away from calling Dr. Morris again when his phone rang, making him jump in surprise by a few centimeters.

Grabbing his phone from the table, he looked at the display. Derek. Shivers went down Stiles’ spine mixed with the fear of bad news from the council, praying silently that nothing bad has happened.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Is everything alright?” He didn’t hesitate to ask more than a second after picking up.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. We’re all fine. I just had this gut feeling that there was something off with Alex or you. And I seem to be right.” Derek’s calm but serious voice managed to sooth Stiles significantly right away. It always worked wonders to talk to Derek, no matter how tricky or desperate a situation was.

“Yeah, it’s…” Stiles exhaled loudly, sitting down on the sofa and moving Alex to a comfortable position. “He’s crying since at least one and I just can’t get him to calm down and I really don’t… I don’t know what to do anymore. Dr. Morris said that he may be teething but all the things I know about that didn’t help. I just…”

Derek cut him off gently but insistently. “Stiles, calm down. Breathe.” So Stiles did. He took a few deep breathes, inhaling and exhaling slowly which calmed him down a little more. “Are you downstairs”, Derek asked after a few moments of relative silence, well, except for Alex’s crying.

“Yes, I’m in the living room.”

“Good. Go to the kitchen and open the fridge.” Derek seemed to hear Stiles getting up and moving towards the kitchen since he waited a few moments before he continued talking.

“What am I supposed to find in here”, Stiles asked when he stood in front of the fridge, opening its door, looking into the inside expectantly and, yes, maybe a little sceptically too.

“At the back of the top shelf is a small, red ring. Take it out.”

Stiles looked for a few moments, pushing the food around a little before finding said ring and taking it into his hands. “Got it.”

“Good”, Derek said. “It’s a teething ring. Alex can chew on it, it usually lessens the pain a little. Now go to the cabinet on the right. There’s a little tin with globules. They’re supposed to help with teething pain.”

“When did you…” Stiles was baffled by all the things Derek did and knew about and all the different situations he was prepared for. Before they had Alex, Stiles has been pretty sure Derek would do a good job with their kid. Now, he was 100% that Derek did the best possible of all jobs.

“A while ago. It was bound to happen sooner or later so I thought we may want to be prepared. I just forgot to tell you about the things I got.”

“Huh.” Stiles reached into the cabinet, taking out a small tin with a medical prescription on it. “You sure about giving him meds?”

“It’s homeopathic and I talked to Dr. Morris about it at the last check-up. It’s fine. Just see what the correct dosage is, it’s somewhere on the side of the tin I think.”

For a few seconds, Stiles didn’t reply because he concentrated on how many of the globules he’s supposed to give Alex. Then, he opened the small tin, pouring some of the tiny round beads into the palm of his hand. “I have to put you down for a sec while I give Alex the medicine. Can you hold?”

“Yes, I’ll wait”, Derek assured him.

Stiles put down the phone onto the kitchen table before pulling back one of the chairs and sitting down, taking Alex into his lap. The first at least three attempts to put the beads into his son's mouth were downright failures but that was to be expected when the little boy was still crying so much that he was about to break out into frantic hiccups again like he already did more than once in the last three hours.

Stiles looked around, searching for a possible way to make the boy accept the medicine when the teething ring beside the phone caught his eye. He reached for it, taking it into his hand to then slowly put the tip of the ring on his son’s gum. At first, Alex didn’t really react. But after a few moments he started to take to it, making Stiles a little more confident about putting a bit more of the ring onto the gum.

A few moments passed before Alex’s crying subsided enough for Stiles to try giving him the globules again and he would be lying if he said there wasn't a load with the size of Texas taken off his mind. He took a few beads onto his finger and maneuvered it into Alex mouth so he could place the small beads under his sons tongue so they wouldn’t slip out too easily. It took a bit of skill with the crying and the teething ring but in the end and after about five minutes of patience and silent _sshhh’_ s and other small praises, Stiles had managed to smuggle the recommended dosage of medicine into his son’s mouth.

“Now that was quite successful, I must say”, Stiles beamed after picking up the phone again, jamming it between his shoulder and his ear.

“He seems to have calm down a bit”, Derek agreed and even though he was the one who’s been calm through all of this, he sounded relived himself. “Maybe you can go upstairs now and lie down with him. You two must be exhausted and you need the sleep.”

“You bet we do. Right, little monkey?” Stiles gave Alex a kiss on the head, holding his teething ring in place for him while he went upstairs after turning off all the lights downstairs. He made his way into Derek’s and his bedroom and turned on the light on the bedside table on his side of the bed before he carefully laid Alex down into the middle of their bed. Out of experience, Stiles knew that Alex was a very calm sleeper, not moving all that much but he built some kind of snake out of Derek’s blanket on the other side of the bed nevertheless because he definitely didn’t want to risk Alex falling. Just in time with a big yawn, Stiles climbed under the covers himself, laying down beside Alex and grabbing the phone where Derek was waiting for him.

“I owe you so much. You saved us here. You’re our hero”, Stiles murmured sleepily, stroking his sons belly. Alex was lying right beside him, contently chewing on his teething ring, the crying having subsided completely by now. Only a few hiccups came up every so often.

“It’s the least I can do, Stiles. I’ll head home tomorrow as soon as we’re done here.” A few moments of silence passed before Derek spoke up again. “Put me on speaker. I want to talk to him.”

“Yeah, maybe it’ll make him fall asleep easier”, Stiles said, turning on the speakerphone option of his phone and lying it down between Alex and himself. “He was forced to listen to my voice for the last four hours straight. I’m sure he wants a break.”

Derek chuckled out a laugh right after Stiles put him on speaker which caused Alex to turn his head around towards the phone. “He’s looking at the phone”, Stiles murmured, the smile that spread on his face clearly audible in his voice.

“Hey, big boy. How are you? Are you keeping you and your daddy up all night?” Stiles loved to listen to Derek talking to Alex. He was a different person with their son, a very own version of Derek that only ever appeared around Alex, when Derek forgot the world around them and concentrated solely on them.

Alex made an excited sound upon recognizing his father, bouncing his hands up and down. Stiles picked up the teething ring, holding it up for his son so he could keep on flailing a little. Everything that made him more tired was good and Stiles was all for Alex getting tired and falling asleep now to be honest.

Derek fell into some sort of slumberous rhythm of talking, telling a story about a baby wolf and some sheep and a random giraffe and yeah, Stiles kind of lost it at some point. This went on for at least half an hour and Stiles was really struggling not to fall asleep by now when Alex finally calmed down so much that he fell asleep, his head lolling towards Stiles.

“He fell asleep”, Stiles whispered, knowing that Derek could hear him anyway.

“Good. You better get some sleep too. Who knows when the little rascal wakes up again. I’m gonna let you go now.”

“Derek?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you. For saving me. I was such a mess tonight, I don’t…” Stiles was about to lash out about all the different reasons on why he failed as a parent on at least ten different levels when he was cut off by Derek.

“You weren’t, you were great. It’s bound to get messy when such a thing happens for the first time. You’ll be calmer the next time. And now sleep.” Slowly drowsing off, Derek’s voice sounded further and further away for Stiles with every passing second.

“Yeah… love you…”, he mumbled.

“I love you too. I’ll see you tomorrow”, Derek said before a quiet _click_ indicated that he hung up.

Stiles himself ended the call mere moments before finally giving away to sleep himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Stiles and Derek call their son Alex but his actual name is Alexander :)
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> If you have any questions, ideas or constructive criticism, feel free to send a message or a comment my way here or on my [Tumblr](http://possiblywonderful.tumblr.com).


End file.
